dtp Schools of nm York 



Hr 



Hev, J. T. K, OXonor, 5. J, 



Education in tb^ Citp 
Schools of Dew York 



BY REV. J. F. X. OCONOR. S. J 

8T. FRANCIS XAVIER'S COLLEGE 
NEW YORK 






6^558 

This paper was read at the invitation 
of the "Quid Nunc Club," of New 
York, on March i6, 1900. Mr. J. J. 
Little, President of the Board of 
Education ; Mr. Beales, President of 
the Club; Rev. E. W. Merington, 
School Principals M. Lieburg and 
Stitt, Miss M. E. Merington and Mr. 
Shipman took part in the discussion 
which followed. 



Gducathn in t^c City Schools 

of Hew York, 



A lecture given before the " Quid Nmic 
Club " by Rev. J. F. X. O' Conor, SJ. 



According to the words of the invi- 
tation, I am here to address you as a 
representative of one of the oldest 
educational institutions of Christen- 
dom. 

The founder of this body of Profes- 
sors, the Jesuits, was born in 1491, 
and the work of education has been 
continued by them to the present date 
when there are in their schools, 52,000 
pupils, in every important city of the 
civilized world. At one time they had 
the education of all Europe, and to say 
that it was not the right kind of edu- 
cation, one might as well say that 
Phidias was not the right kind of 
artist, because the sculptors of to-day 
do not follow his lines of art. The 
first principle of the Jesuit educator 
is thoroughness, the idea commended 
by Horace, multum, non imilta, "a 
great deal, but not a great many 



thing-s.'' This principle is followed 
out in his own training, when, to 
prepare him as a teacher he has 
two years of spiritual training, two 
years review of university classics, 
three years of mental philosophy and 
science, five years of normal practice 
as professor, four years of theology and 
scripture and a final year of mental 
and spiritual renewal of energy, and 
an examination on a seven years' 
course of study, and he is sent forth 
after seventeen years of training 
equipped to take any place in the col- 
lege curriculum, whether teacher in 
the elementary class or professor in the 
class of philosophy or theology, or 
president of the university. From his 
own trainings, he will incline to think 
that thoroughness ought to be a prin- 
ciple that should be at the root of all 
education. And so he does. It should 
be the foundation of education, and of 
all good art, and of literature and of 
science. 

Education ought to mean the de- 
velopment of a man's faculties, a for- 
mation of the judgment and an equip- 
ment for the ordinary duties of life. 

Not referring, for the present, to the 
physical, religious and moral education 



of the child, factors not less important, 
our task will be to inquire as to what 
education — or teaching — is doing for 
the mind of the child, what it ought 
to do, and what should not be done. 
To take a common sense view of the 
subject, education ought to prepare the 
child to be a man with mind and 
character well formed, and to be a use- 
ful citizen of the State, and not only 
supply him with a certain amount of 
knowledge or information, but so 
strengthen his faculties of thinking 
and judging, that he may readily adapt 
to his use, and wisely, the knowledge 
which may come in his way, or which he 
may seek, and exercise his will so as to 
act according to his destiny, for his 
own benefit in life, as well as for that 
of his fellow-men. 

The education of a great city like 
New York, almost on the threshold of 
the twentieth century, should aim at 
something better than utilitarian cram. 
The future citizen who is to be a leader 
among his fellow-men ought to be 
something more, mentally, than an ac- 
countant or a specialist in some line of 
useful work. The education he re- 
ceives should not prepare him directly 
for the trade he is to follow — that will 



be given by his apprenticeship as 
tradesman — but itshould givea solidity 
to his mind, a receptivity of thought, 
a readiness to make use of men and 
things for the betterment of life, anc! 
for the work given to him by Provi- 
dence. Men are not machines, or 
parts of machines, but are beings 
of action, and these actions and 
lines of action vary according to 
the emergencies of life, and it is the 
educated mind only that can take in 
all the varied aspects of the situation, 
and act promptly, vigorously and 
effectively for the best results. 

Education in the schools of New 
York comprises the courses ot instruc- 
tion in reading, writing, arithmetic, 
literature, with the additional subjects 
of music, sewing, drawing, clay model- 
ing, hygiene, botany, the abuse of 
alcohol and narcotics. In the colleges 
are the undergraduate classes of the 
University course in the liberal arts. 

In the schools, if the instruction 
were confined to the three first sub- 
jects — language, number, writing — it 
would be possible to give the child a 
thorough training. The object inten- 
ded is, without a doubt, to prepare the 
child for its work in life, and it is to be 



admitted that attention and effort has 
been given to solve the various difficult 
problems that present themselves. But 
every individual as an educator who 
has made use of his judgment, knows 
that a first principle of education of 
the human mind is thoroughness, and 
there can be no thoroughness when 
there is the attempt to teach more than 
the child's mind can grasp and assimi- 
late. Many branches have been intro- 
duced with the utilitarian idea that a 
school education is to prepare a child 
for the work of life. It is to prepare 
it for life, but not for one particular 
trade. The child's mind should receive 
an all round training, it will then be 
better adapted to learn the various 
professions of life. The schools ought 
not to undertake to teach all those 
things that are to be learned in home 
life. This is the home training. The 
school is to train the mind — let the 
home train the hands, or the appren- 
ticeship do this work in the line chosen 
by the child after school life. The 
public schools or private school or any 
school, ought not to assume that every 
child is to be a tradesman,and transform 
themselves into mechanical and trade 
schools, but to look after the mental de- 



velopmentof the child, and especially of 
the judgmentand will, and this is accom- 
plished better by mental exercise than 
by practice of eye and hand. What 
is the value of the best equipment in 
war without the brains of the general 
and his thinking power to bring about 
results? On account of the multiplicity 
of subjects, the division of time given 
to each subject of instruction becomes 
exceedingly small, and smaller accord- 
ing to the increase of the number of 
subjects to be taught. 

Hence, on the principle that what is 
taught should be taught well and thor- 
oughly, it follows from the very nature 
of the human mind, that if this prin- 
ciple of thoroughness — the only sound 
one of real education — is to be upheld, 
the number of branches taught must be 
restricted, and restricted to the capacity 
of the child's mind. This thorough 
training cannot be brought about 
without bringing the faculties of the 
mind into play, and this cannot be 
accomplished without mental effort, 
which is quite distinct from recreation 
or play. It is all very well to say, let 
the child learn while at play. 

The athlete preparing for the con- 
test of running or boxing or^^other 



trial of strength or skill is not trained 
in merely one set of muscles. He is 
trained as to breathing, endurance, 
hardening the muscles of the whole 
physical system. Thus the child 
ought to be prepared for the con- 
test of life. The training of the athlete 
is not mere play, it is effort — some- 
times rude and painful — and in the case 
of the child to develop its mental 
powers the effort will not be always 
unaccompanied by striving which will 
require not a little taxing of the energy. 
Theorists may have an opinion to the 
contrary, but it stands to reason that 
this is the character of the human 
mind, and the mind has not suddenly 
divested itself of all its characteristics 
in the last twenty-five years. 

I have examined the courses of study 
for the various grades in the different 
years, and the daily schedule, with 
the time allotted for each subject. 
In the education of the child to-day, 
we find the number of subjects very 
much increased, and the amount of time 
for each branch exceedingly short ; the 
result is but little serious work for the 
mind. The analytic method of former 
years has been suddenly changed for 
the synthetic and teachers are abruptly 



Id 

required to teach a method for which 
their previous normal training has not 
prepared them. This experiment in 
education has been almost suddenly- 
applied to the thousands of children in 
our great city. The result is that 
excellent work cannot be accomplished, 
unless the course itself and especially 
the recent innovations are cut down. 
The work in English and in mathe- 
matics, in consequence, is not up to as 
high a standard as five or six years 
ago. In order to see how much or how 
little time is given to mental work, it 
will be worth while to examine atten- 
tively the schedule taken from the 
course of study mapped out by the 
Department of Education, New York. 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 

Schedule Schedule 

First Three Years. Last Four Years. 

Reading 6 Reading 

Writing ^ Composition i 

Nature Study i% Penmanship i 

Number 4 Arithmetic 3^ 

Manual Training . . 4 Geography i% 

Music I History 



Science 

Manual Work. 
Music. .... 



Hours per week . . .i8J^ Hours per week. . 

Six hours given to non-mental work. 

One hour to composition. 

Six hours to reading and penmanship. 

Six hours to arithmetic, geography and history. 



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The first impression made upon one in 
going over the course of studies in the 
schools of New York is that the course 
is adapted to educate the senses rather 
than to educate the mind. It culti- 
vates powers of observation but not so 
much powers of judgment. It teaches 
to gather facts, but not reasoning on 
those facts ; it develops the animal 
powers of the five senses, but not so 
much the distinctly intellectual or 
mental powers. 

Now as the soul is more important 
than the body, and the mind of greater 
dignity than the senses, it stands to 
reason that if education is for the in- 
telligence, greater stress should be laid 
upon the development of the intelli- 
gence than upon the training of the 
physical powers. 

A child in the class room is taught 
the difference between a cat and a 
tiger. We have all heard of the dif- 
ferent methods of the German and the 
Englishman when asked to describe 
an elephant. The German sat down 
in his room and thought out what an 
elephant might be, the Englishman 
went to the Zoological garden and saw 
the animals. Why have we Zoologi- 
cal gardens for natural history if time 



is taken away from the mental train- 
ing for that knowledge which could be 
obtained at a single glance of the eye ? 
A visit to the Bronx Botanical garden 
would be better than many hours of 
instruction. We may now ask three 
questions in regard to education in New 
York, and we are speaking now of the 
method of the city school. 

1. What does this method do? 

2. What it does not accomplish. 

3. What it ought to achieve. 

I. What this method does. — It trains 
the mind fairly in numbers, gives a 
general idea of language and supplies 
a large amount of general useful in- 
formation. How thorough this knowl- 
edge is and how deeply imprinted 
might be a matter for consideration. 
The facts acquired are chiefly scien- 
tific. What value these scientific facts 
may have in ten years, compared 
with a strengthening of the powers of 
the mind itself may be inferred from 
the answer of a professor of Yale Col- 
lege. When asked what books would 
you put on the top shelf, or in the 
storeroom, as not of any special value 
for reference, the answer was, " All 
books of science that date ten years 
back." Ponder for a moment the rev- 



15 

olutions in electricity in the last five 
years. In ten years more — what will 
become of the antique scientific facts 
upon which so much time is spent that 
should be given to the human intel- 
lect itself, which never grows antique? 

2. What it does not accomplish. — It 
does not develop the strictly mental 
power, the judgment, the reasoning, 
which is the distinctive faculty of 
man. 

It does not train the mind by form- 
ing it to grapple with difficulties. 

It does not equip the mind fully for 
the acquisition of new knowledge 
over and above the fund of general 
information which it receives in the 
cultivation of powers of observation. 

In other words — it places a low 
standard on the activity of the child's 
mind and makes its intellect a recep- 
tacle of facts rather than a creative 
force of living thought, an originator 
of ideas, an inventive rather than an 
imitative faculty. 

J. What it ought to do. — Education in 
New York City to-day ought to make 
a man ready for the work of life to- 
day and of the future. He is a child 
now, a man soon. It ought to be 
more thorough than at any time in the 



i6 

world's history, for the reason that the 
individual citizen of to-day has more 
problems to solve and of a more com- 
plex nature than were ever placed 
before the mind of man. The way to 
solve these problems of life, to give 
good decisions and sound judgments, 
is not to cram the mind with facts 
which will be out of date, or crowded 
out by other facts later in life, but 
to give to the mind the tenacity, the 
cohesion, the flexibility of steel to 
resist, and to bend and to hold together 
in the conflict of motives and impulses, 
and when the shock is over to be true 
as steel and as firm though hard 
pressed under the tension. This is the 
kind of education that is needed for 
the twentieth century, when we shall 
need more than ever, men of mind, 
men of character, men of worth to 
uphold the fabric of the State against 
the inroads and the battering of selfish- 
ness and corruption, the sapping of 
irreligion and baseness, and the rav- 
aging of audacity and crime. We 
shall need men whose minds are 
guided by the two guardians of wisdom 
and truth, wisdom to weigh things 
and men in the balance, and truth, not 
to be misled by error in whatever 



17 

specious form of splendor it may be 
clothed. 

One remarkable state of affairs, 
which no doubt many here present have 
recognized, with no little shock to their 
sense of the fitness of things, is the 
readiness and coolness with which 
individuals enter upon the discussion 
of every subject. This is done with a 
positiveness, an assurance and a failure 
to imagine that anything is beyond 
the horizon of their limited wisdom, 
that, to the thinking man, is simply 
appalling. People with very superficial 
education but boundless conceit will 
undertake to give their opinion as final 
on subjects that take a life-time of 
study. They will decide what is the 
right view in philosophy, psychology, 
theology, pedagogy, law, medicine, 
ethics, science, literature, social life, 
without any deep study on any of these 
subjects, and in fact have not sufficient 
knowledge to be able to discern even 
the most palpable false judgments, 
theories or mistaken views that stare in 
the face, a man of a truly educated 
mind. This we see in daily conversation, 
in papers, reviews, interviews, and in 
written treatises. If a sound answer 
is given, or a dissecting of a fallacy, or 



i8 

a disproval of an argument is brought 
forward, they are either unwilling to re- 
cognize or incapable of perceiving its 
truth and justice, and pooh-pooh it as 
narrow-minded or unprogressive. This 
state of mind, which is not uncommon, 
is one of the results of superficial 
training in many things without a 
serious study of any one branch. It is 
a fact to be deplored, a state that 
should not be continued and one to 
which every possible remedy ought to 
be applied. 

It is here that we find the vivid il- 
lustration of the saying that " a little 
knowledge is a dangerous thing." 

Apart from this view of the merely 
mental aspect of what education should 
do, is another point tvithout which, all 
thinking minds admit, any considera- 
tion of education is incomplete and de- 
fective. This is the question of relig- 
ious education. It is not a question 
apart from, but an integral factor of 
education itself. The education of a 
Christian people should be a Christian 
education. If we place ourselves with- 
in the borderland of Christianity, how 
then consistently can this be done by 
Christians, if the education of their 
children is not Christian ? 



19 

It would interest you to hear on this 
question the third Council of Balti- 
more on education: 

" Popular education has always been 
a chief object of the Church's care, (i) 
in fact it is not too much to say that 
the history of the Church's work is the 
history of civilization and education. 
In the rude ages when semi-barbarous 
chieftains boasted of their illiteracy,(2) 
she succeeded in diffusing- that love of 
learning which covered Europe with 
schools and universities ; and thus 
from the barbarous tribes of the early 
ages she built up the civilized nations 
of modern times. These facts attest 
the Church's desire for popular instruc- 
tion. The beauty of truth, the refin- 
ing and elevating influences of knowl- 
edge are meant for all and she wishes 
them brought within the reach of all. 
Knowledge enlarges our capacity both 

( 1 ) The Synod of 800 says : Let them erect 
schools in towns and villages in order to teach 
little children the elements of learning. Let 
them receive no remuneration for their school. 
She started the common school education in the 
Sixth Century according to Hallam. 

(2) " Thanks to St. Dunstan no son of mine 
"Was ever able to pen a line." — Scott. 



for self -improvement and for promoting 
the welfare of our fellow-men ; and in 
so noble a work the Church wishes 
every hand to be busy. Knowledge 
too is the best weapon against perni- 
cious errors. It is only a little learning 
that is a dangerous thing. 

In days like ours when error is pre- 
tentious and aggressive every one 
needs to be as completely armed as 
possible with sound knowledge. 

Few if any will deny that a sound 
civilization must depend upon sound 
popular education. But education in 
order to be sound and to produce ben- 
eficial results, must develop what is best 
in man and make him not only clever 
but good. A one-sided education will 
develop a one-sided life, and such alife 
will surely topple over, and so will every 
social system that is built up of such 
lives. True civilization requires that 
not only the physical and intellectual, 
but also the moral and religious well 
being of the people should be improved 
and at least with equal care. Take 
away religion from a people, and mo- 
rality will soon follow; morality gone, 
even their physical condition will ere 
long degenerate into the corruption 
which breeds decrepitude, while their 



intellectual attainments would only 
serve as a light to guide them to deep- 
er depths of vice and ruin. This has 
been so often demonstrated in the 
history of the past and is, in fact, so 
self-evident, that one is amazed to find 
any difference of opinion about it. A 
civilization without religion would be 
a civilization of the struggle for exist- 
ence, and the survival of the fittest, in 
which cunning and strength would be- 
come the substitutes for principle, 
virtue, conscience and duty. As a 
matter of fact there never has been a 
civilization worthy of the name with- 
out religion; and from the facts of 
history the laws of nature can easily be 
inferred. 

The three great educational agencies 
are the home, the church and the 
school. These mould men and shape 
society. To shut religion out of the 
school, and keep it for home and the 
church, is, logically, to train up a gen- 
eration that will consider religion good 
for home and the church, but not for 
the practical business of real life. 
But a more false or pernicious notion 
cannot be imagined. Religion in order 
to inspire a people, should inspire their 
whole life and rule their relations 



with one another. A hfe is not 
dwarfed but ennobled by being lived in 
the presence of God. Therefore the 
school which principally gives the 
knowledge fitting for practical life, 
ought to be preeminently under the 
holy influence of religion. The child 
cannot expect to learn the principles of 
religion in the workshop or office or 
the counting room. 

All denominations of Christians are 
now awakening to this great truth 
which the Catholic Church has never 
ceased to maintain. Reason and ex- 
perience are forcing them to recognize 
that the only way to secure a Christian 
people is to give the youth a Christian 
education. 

The cry for Christian education is 
going up from all religious bodies 
throughout the land. And this is no 
narrowness or " sectarianism " on their 
part. It is a logical and honest en- 
deavor to preserve Christian truth and 
morality among the people by foster- 
ing religion among the young. Nor 
is it any antagonism to the State ; on 
the contrary it is an honest endeavor 
to give to the State better citizens by 
making them better Christians. The 
friends of Christian education do not 



^9fO. 



23 

condemn the State for not imparting 
religious instruction in the public 
schools as they are now organized ; 
because they well know it does not lie 
within the province of the State to teach 
religion. They simply follow their 
conscience by sending their children 
to denominational schools, where re- 
ligion can have its rightful place and 
influence." 

The necessity of this religious edu- 
cation spoken of by the Council is em- 
pasized in the Spectator of January 20, 
1900. 

" It assumes that Nonconformists as 
well as churchmen and Roman Cath- 
olics consider religion ' an absolutely 
vital element of all education worthy 
of the name.' They recognize we 
know well that alike for the solution of 
our great social problems at home and 
for the worthy discharge of our vast 
imperial responsibilities abroad, it is 
essential that the English people (may 
we not say too, the American people) 
should be a religious people — that in 
both directions a readiness to face per- 
sonal sacrifice is and will be called for 
— not only at times of obvious crisis, 
like the present, but steadily and at all 
times, and that a temper of that quality 



24 

can only be expected to flourish per- 
manently in a distinctly Christian 
nation. Such a nation, as they would 
agree, can only exist if from generation 
to generation it is brought up in the 
faith. And that can only happen if 
in schools for all classes the essential 
doctrines of Christianity are plainly 
taught and an atmosphere correspond- 
ing to them maintained.'' 

In addition to this view of the 
Spectator may be quoted that of the 
Churchman for January 27. It says, 
"We recall no times in this generation 
when the serious consideration of the 
religious instruction of the young has 
been pressed upon us so earnestly and 
from such varied quarters. Religious 
training is not taking the place to 
which it is pedagogically entitled. 
The responsibility for this rests with 
the parent." 

Professor Butler in the Educational 
Reviezv for December, says "Educa- 
tion must include knowledge of each 
of the five elements ... as well 
as an insight into them all and sym- 
pathy with them all. To omit any 
one system is to cripple education and 
to make its best results but partial." 
The five referred to are "science, liter- 



25 

ature, art, institutional life and reli- 
gious beliefs." 

"Religious training is a necessary 
factor in education and must be given 
the time, the attention, and the serious 
continued treatment which it deserves. 
That religious training is not at the 
present time given a place by the side 
of the study of science, literature, art 
or of human institutions, is well recog- 
nized. How has this come about? 
How are the integrity and the com- 
pleteness of education to be restored?" 

"The separation of religious training 
from education as a whole is the out- 
growth of Protestantism and of democ- 
racy," says Prof. Butler, and the in- 
tegrity and completeness of education 
are to be restored by a Sunday School 
well organized, enlarged, in time, ex- 
tent, and by the use of biography, 
history, geography, literature and art as 
the ally of the other agencies and then 
it becomes, "not religion and educa- 
tion but religion in education." He 
admits that there are " numerous local 
problems to be solved, no doubt, and 
not a few practical difficulties to be 
overcome." 

The Sunday School has its own place 
and work, but we are firmly convinced 



26 

that the education in religion that will 
be effective, is that which, according 
to the Council of Baltimore is a portion 
of the daily education of the child, and 
should, as much as the four other 
branches of education, enter equally 
into the actions of daily life. 

It is a matter of universal acceptance 
that a Christian people has a home, a 
country and a God. The home begets 
the love of the family, the love of coun- 
try, fosters the love of the flag, and 
religion teaches the worship of God 
who gives us our country and our home. 
How far from the eternal fitness of things 
to have child study and nature study, 
but no word to be breathed about the 
creator of the child and the God of 
nature. 

On this subject listen to the ringing 
words of one who loved our flag, who 
was a true American and a great 
American, Daniel Webster, who says : 
" It is an insult to common sense and a 
mockery to say that where Christian 
teachers instruct Christian pupils to 
exclude sedulously and intentionally 
religious instruction it is not to all 
intents and purposes to teach deism 
and infidelity." 

Education should train the mental 



27 

faculties of the child to the full extent 
of his powers, but with wisdom and 
judgment, and form the whole character, 
which cannot be well formed without 
the moulding influence of religious 
teaching, not apart from, but together 
with the training of the intellect in 
science, literature and art. 



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